httpd-dev mailing list archives

Whilst 2.2 is, as advertised, source-compatible with 2.0 auth modules,
the current implementation requires that any auth configuration using
such modules is changed to add "AuthBasicAuthoritative off" otherwise
mod_auth_basic will see "no provider configured -> use default file
provider -> fails (since no AuthUserFile is configured) -> deny access".
(the failure mode for this is particularly ugly: after an upgrade, a
previously-working configuration turns into a 500 error with a weird
error message logged as ap_pcfg_openfile returns APR_EBADF when passed
the NULL filename by mod_authn_file)
There are lots of 2.0-compatible auth modules out there, and upgrades
which require admins to make changes to .htaccess files are not very
attractive, so I think it's worth solving this problem if possible.
Solutions I can see:
- only have mod_auth_basic be authoritative if AuthBasicProvider is
configured
- use some hack such that mod_auth_basic will DECLINE iff no provider is
configured and mod_authn_file throws the AUTHN_GENERAL_ERROR. (attached
as proof of concept)
Any thoughts, better ideas?
joe